California county boasts its top cash crop as marijuana

UKIAH, Calif. (AP) - The rule of law seems to have a weak hold in this county of spectacular forests, canyons, rocky coastal cliffs and some of the finest marijuana in the world.

In Mendocino County, pot is the biggest cash crop and the new district attorney is an excon.

"People tell me one of two things," said District Attorneyelect Norman Vroman.

"It's either, `I wish I had the guts to do what you did against the IRS,' or it's `How in world do you believe you can be the top prosecutor if you've served time in federal prison?"'

Vroman, a lawyer, served nine months behind bars during the early 1990s for failing to pay several thousand dollars in income taxes.

Last week, Vroman, running on a platform that included decriminalization of marijuana, defeated a three-term incumbent who was president-elect of the California District Attorney Association.

This rugged county of 52,000 people 100 miles north of San Francisco also elected a new sheriff, Tony Craver.

He also backs decriminalization.

In Vroman's case, voters were displeased with the incumbent's handling of a big murder case in which a sheriff's deputy on stakeout was shot to death. The defendant was auitted.

But the folksy and engaging Vroman also was seen admiringly as a rebel.

And Craver has a blunt, genial manner that went over well with people and was seen as having deeper roots in the county than the previous sheriff, who spent a decade in Los Angeles County.

The two men's stance on marijuana figured in both campaigns in this county of mountain folk, ex-hippies, yuppies and refugees from big cities.

"It was a hot issue. Up until now, there has been a `don't ask, don't tell' policy. They have not harassed us, but on the other hand, they have not cooperated with us," said Marvin Lehrman, who runs a 200-member medical marijuana club. "Vroman's slogan was `It's time for a change,' and that's what we want."

A lanky, mustachioed, by-the-book sheriff's officer, the 61-year-old Craver has busted drug dealers and growers for years in an area where the famously potent marijuana retails for $5,000 a pound.

But he also believes marijuana use should be decriminalized. Decriminalization could reduce marijuana use from a misdemeanor under state law, which can bring a jail term, to the equivalent of a traffic offense, which normally carries only a fine.

Commercial growers and traffickers should be prosecuted, but "if you light up a joint in your home, who are you hurting?" Craven said.

However, both he and Vroman said their personal views on marijuana use will not affect their official duties.

"It's illegal. If he arrests them, I'll prosecute them," Vroman said.

Mendocino County has produced more marijuana since 1995 than any of California's 57 other counties.

Last year, state and local agents in helicopters and ground squads raided 340 pot plantations in Mendocino County and seized $204 million worth of weed. Authorities believe that for every plant they find, there are perhaps 10 more out there.

"It's considered about the best in the world, if not the best. It's about 10 to 25 times more potent than the marijuana of the 1960s," said state Justice Department spokesman Mike Van Winkle.

Vroman, who said he moved to Mendocino County in 1975 to escape the pressures of Southern California, has worked a prosecutor, a fill-in judge, a defense attorney and a public defender. In fact, the last three district attorneys in Mendocino County had also been public defenders.

"I don't know whether it's because people are suspicious of authority, but I think a lot of it has to do with people not wanting the D.A. to be tough on lightweight crimes. They don't like wasting money," said retiree George McClure of Ukiah.

Vroman has piled up $1.3 million in tax liens and filed for bankruptcy twice, and in 1991 was sent to prison.

"They cited the Internal Revenue Service Code, but there is no law that says you have to file a return," he said. "They use fear. That's how the IRS works."